Kelsee's Tale – Part One

Kelsee was lost in the glow of her datapad's display, which she held up in the air above her face as she lay in bed. The subject of choice was a kink community site on the planetary net, which is where she enjoyed spending much of her free time. The Karrian girl had few friends, and fewer still she felt comfortable sharing her interests with, but the digital world gave her a place to feel welcome.
She'd been a lurker for years, starting before she was old enough to have an account, but when she came of age Kelsee made a new account and began to fill it, slowly, with content. Most of it was bad fiction, written mostly for self-gratification and then shared in the hope some others may enjoy the work. Later came a few pictures – a flash of soft-scaled breast, or under the tail, but never the face. That was always a step too far. Until yesterday.
She had used cardboard to wall off a photo booth and set her pad upon a stool. For the selfie she wore only a hemp rope around her neck, tied safely as online videos had instructed her, and secured under the pad to give the impression the viewer was holding the rope leash. The picture revealed everything: the dark green of her soft Karrian scales; the paler trail that began at her neck and ran down her front before vanishing under her tail; the purple-dyed shock of hair that ran down the centre of her head. The twenty-two year old reptile stared up at the camera, demure and submissive, with wide eyes and her lips parted just a hint in anticipation of whatever her master had in store for her.
As Kelsee looked at the picture her free claw drifted down to her crotch, gently teasing the private flesh hidden between her thighs. “Do I do this?” she asked herself. But the answer was obvious; she'd already shown all that mattered piecemeal.
Her thumb flicked the image into the attachment square. With the help of the auto-keyboard she typed a message, “Slave girl Kelsee, eager to please her beloved Master as always”, added tags, and hit upload.

Though she wasn't especially religious, Kelsee wondered if she had done something truly awful in a previous life – it seemed the only logical explanation for having to live on Maribahl. The planet had two temperatures, too hot and too cold. Its environments were hideous in the extreme despite every effort to transform it into a liveable planet, remaining a bland brown rock despite almost two centuries of work. The atmosphere was breathable, but Maribahl refused to be terraformed.
The town of Loquis sat surrounded by desert. Most of the desert was sand, and what wasn't sand was iron oxide – rust. Its primary industries were turning sand and rust into something more useful. Its second largest employer was the transport industry, who mostly hauled sand and rust.
The town's buildings, in defiance of their hateful environment, were smooth-faced constructions of polished metal and pearlescent composites, making Loquis look like a nesting ground for a truly titanic bird, especially when viewed from above. Kelsee was one of many young people born and raised in the town, and as was common for her generation she felt surplus to requirements. Most settlements on Maribahl numbered in the low thousands at most, but Loquis had sixty thousand residents. It was a hub, a focal point where the innumerable satellite industries collated their output and a place the workers came to waste their wages. Too many people and not enough to do had left Loquis with a less than desirable reputation. By chance or correlation, it also acted as a place where 'different' people liked to gather.
After a morning shift waiting tables, Kelsee was in the mood to be daring. Her pictures had garnered a lot of attention, and the flood of compliments had excited her in all the right ways. Giddiness and horniness made her want to be reckless, so she took a stroll rather than heading straight home. She made sure the community knew she was out for a walk – there was a code for those in the know, which Kelsee was. Or nearly was. As she approached her destination the Karrian girl began to doubt if she'd expressed her desires correctly. Lust began to give way to anxiety as she reached the infamous 'rape alley'. There was someone waiting there; a ratty red t-shirt tied to a drainpipe indicated as much.
The Karrian entered, staring straight forward and walking halfway down. She heard movement to her right, but did not react. Someone stepped behind her. Their breath upon her neck made her shiver, but the true thrill came from the pressure on her stomach as she was pulled tight against them. The 'attacker' slid a hand down to her pants, popping the top button and slipping his fingers into her underwear. The sensation of a stranger caressing her scales made her shudder, a soft moan escaping her lips as the intruding digits caressed the front of her mound on their way to her warm, wet womanhood. Karrian females had no clitoris, but the warm inner passage was more than sensitive enough to make up for that. The stranger began to finger her roughly, thrusting into her while squeezing her left breast tightly. Kelsee bucked her hips against his palm to increase her own stimulation, her eyes sliding closed as a day's worth of pent-up need rushed toward the offered release. “Fuck!” she yelled aloud, squirting hard into the unknown palm.
She felt the hand withdraw, pausing only to wipe Karrian juices on her shirt. The pressure at her back released, and with a bright crimson blush on her muzzle she fled as fast as her jellied legs would carry her. “I've just been finger-fucked by a total stranger!” she gasped to the streetlamp she used for support when running was no-longer an option. She was almost tempted to go back. Almost.

She kept away from the datapad just long enough to shower, change, and eat. The fans of 'rape alley' were cryptic in their comments, speaking in vague terms about an 'attack' that had happened that day. Of course, nobody knew who was involved – the ages, sexes, even species of both attacker and victim were mused on, but forever unconfirmed. All Kelsee knew for sure was that the male wasn't a Karrian like her; she was all-too familiar with what Karrian fingers felt like between her legs.
A private message request popped up as she studied the comments under her earlier picture. It was from a user called 'OldCellarKinkClub'. She knew about the Old Cellar, as it had been mentioned in threads, but she'd never been. “The Old Cellar is hosting an open kink night on the 17th, open to singles and couples alike. Whether you're an old hand or a new starter, the night promises to have something for you. We hope to see you there!”
“Should I?” Kelsee mused aloud. As before, the answer seemed to be self-evident; why should a girl who had just invited a stranger to grope her in public be embarrassed about being in a kink club? She clicked the link enclosed and confirmed attendance. A new adventure was just four days away, a chance to indulge her fetishes in front of an audience of total strangers... just the idea was enough to make her flick one out.

The day came at long last. Kelsee had been too distracted to work, choosing to call in sick instead. All day she fought the urge to finger herself, knowing despite the desperation that relief would be all the sweeter if she could wait until entering the club. She arrived via taxi to find the Old Cellar unremarkable in appearance. It was a building much like any other, with the general appearance of a bar or lower-end restaurant. The front doors were firmly shut, however, with access only permitted from the back.
Circling round to the car park gate, Kelsee spied someone waiting there. He was a Kyyreni of indeterminate age, but likely close to her own. He wore only a pair of black shorts, leaving his blond-furred body on display for all the world to see. He sported a thick, but well-kept mane that matched the rest of his fur, albeit with a few stray strands of darker brown. His long, cat-like tail swung lazily behind him, its black tuft flicking against the wall with each swish. His wolfish muzzle turned towards her, harsh green eyes studying her curiously. It was only then Kelsee noticed the thin, brown cylinder held in his lips, from which a thin swirl of grey smoke escaped. “What?” he asked.
“Oh... nothing!” she answered hastily.
Her panic seemed to amuse the Kyyreni, and her mind immediately jumped to her father's snarled warnings about their kind; a race of stupid, violent, religious fanatics. Yet as her parent's voice echoed in her head the Kyyreni male removed the object and offered it to her. “Want a try?”
Kelsee's snout wrinkled at the smell. “Is that tobacco?”
“Mhmm. May not be legal here, but there's lots of places nearby where it is. Lots of folks willing to smuggle it in as well.” After a final draw and puff of smoke he dropped the contraband, crushed it beneath his bare foot and kicked the remnants into the gutter. “Not that I would ever do such a thing. I'm a law abiding citizen, as I'm sure you are. Name's 'Ban', by the way.”
“Kelsee,” she answered automatically. Maybe it was childish defiance of her father, or maybe it was the male's casual disregard for the law, but the Karrian girl found herself fond of Ban immediately. “Are you here for the Old Cellar?”
The Kyyreni chuckled at the question. “Why else would I be here? Don't recall seeing you here before though. First time?”
“Yes. You?”
“I visit whenever I'm in town. My crew know my proclivities, but it gets a bit too familiar only having them to play with. Meeting new people keeps things spicey.” The reptilian girl's hot blush grew ever hotter. A scoundrel and a ship captain? Fate had handed her quite the prize! Ban seemed to notice, judging by how his smile widened. “You know, couples get a discount. Want to go in as an item?”
Kelsee's mouth dropped open. “Wow, you are quite forward!”
He winked at her in reply. “Nah, I'm just practical. The less coin I have to spend getting in the more I can spend buying drinks for pretty Karrian girls.”
“Okay!” she replied a little too eagerly, her fluster obvious. Ban took her arm like a gentleman and guided her inside.

The Old Cellar's reception was in the basement. Ban signed them in and guided Kelsee to the main lounge area. Kinksters of multiple species were already there, dressed in everything from smart-casual to BDSM gear. Of particular note was a fellow reptilian, a towering Drakonian female whose raptor like frame towered over everyone else present despite her hunched posture. Drakonians usually went nude as they were blessed with thick, armoured scales. Seeing one in a leather body harness technically covered more of her body than normal, yet made her casual exposure far more scintillating.
Ban continued to the next room, which was the bar. Dance music played over the speaker system. The walls were adorned with everything from tasteful oil paintings to mute screens of hardcore pornography. “What's your drink of choice?” he asked.
“Tequila,” Kelsee answered in what she hoped was a confident voice.
“As you wish. Just be mindful that playing while drunk is not wise. It's too easy to push yourself too far when alcohol is involved.” He gestured towards a vacant corner couch and went to the bar.
“I'm hoping you can help me with something,” Ban said upon returning with drinks. “When I saw you outside you looked familiar, but I can't think where we've met before.”
Kelsee blushed at the comment. “Do you visit many kink sites?”
The Kyyreni male chuckled at the question. “Oh, now I remember! You were posing wearing a rope leash! That was a beautiful picture, by the way.”
“Thank you,” the Karrian drank from her glass a little too hastily. Getting a real life compliment for her erotic works felt jarring, given that she'd always kept that side of herself digital as much as possible.
“Something else you should know, and it's best you know it now. This place is a kink club, but that doesn't mean you have to play. You can spend the whole evening chatting about sports if you like and nobody's going to think less of you.”
Kelsee accepted the statements with an eager nod. “That's good to know, but I'm not completely new to 'play'. I've done stuff before.”
“Of course. Sorry, I just assumed that because you hadn't been here before this was you just getting started in the scene.”
“Oh, don't apologise! I like the fact you're looking out for me like that.” She flashed the Kyyreni a warm smile, and he reciprocated.
Their first drinks went down quickly, as did most of the second despite Ban's warnings. Their chatting tone shifted as swiftly as they drank, going from idle talk to subtle flirting, followed by less than subtle flirting and direct inquiries as to the 'toys' each had brought. When Ban finally asked if she'd like to find a play room, Kelsee grabbed his paw without a second's hesitation.

They slipped inside a warm, red-lit room taken up mostly by a double bed. “What are you after?” he asked as he opened his black bag of gear.
“I'll settle for being tied down and fucked,” Kelsee sighed hungrily, shedding her clothes as fast as she could.
The neediness made Ban chuckle. “You don't need to 'settle' my dear. You're into slave play, right?”
“Oh yes, very much so!”
“Then let me make you my slave for the evening,” the Kyyreni purred. There was just the right amount of threat in his tone to make Kelsee shiver, but it was a welcome thrill. She turned toward him, utterly nude, and offered her arms as if waiting to be cuffed. “That's my girl,” Ban said as he closed a pair of black leather cuffs around her wrists, and then put a matching pair around her ankles. The last touch was a collar.
With a gentle push, Ban put her down onto the bed. Using several nylon ropes he bound her spread-eagled to the bed, pausing every so often to inspect his work. He found another leather cuff for her tail, which was likewise bound, then made a few final adjustments to ensure she was secured to his satisfaction. He gave her body a thorough examination, which drew a curious raised eyebrow. “Something's missing down there,” he said playfully.
Kelsee gave a bashful grin. “Karrians don't have a clitoris.”
“Oh good. I would hate to be the only man in history who can't find it,” Ban chuckled as he lowered his shorts, allowing his wolfish cock to pop free of the restrictive material. A thin bead of precum bubbled at the tip of his red meat, but the Karrian's eyes were drawn to the swollen knot at the base. With a cautious lick of her lips, she wondered if she could fit that inside her comfortably.
“Patience, pet,” Ban purred as he knelt down at the foot of the bed. Kelsee couldn't see what he was doing, but the sudden caress of warm breath upon her intimate folds told her clearly. A rough tongue lapped at her labia, touching the very bottom of her opening and teasing upwards towards her mound. Every lap drew a whimper from the reptile's lips and made her hips buck in a desperate attempt to bring more of Ban's tongue against her needy flesh, but the restraints gave her no room to move.
“Oh, but you are hungry!” Ban laughed playfully as she wriggled beneath him. “How often do you masturbate, slave? The truth.”
The word 'slave' hit her inhibitions like a hammer. “At least once a day, sometimes more,” she blurted out.
Ban tutted into her dripping cunny. “A slave needs to learn discipline. I don't think you should be allowed to cum.”
“Oh please!” she blurted out in reply. “I am desperate!”
The Kyyreni rose into view, leaning over her to look into the Karrian's eyes. He was smiling, but his tone was serious. “If we're going to play, we play by the rules. Your safe word is 'mercy'. You say that, and I'll give you whatever release you want right away. Otherwise, you only get what I give you... and I promise you will be leaving this room pent up and needy.”
The offer tightened Kelsee's chest, but a swift finger thrust into her shattered any attempt at coherent thought. Ban's finger drew rapid, forceful circles against the front wall of her vaginal passage, growing ever more forceful as her panting and moaning grew in force. The girl's eyes clenched shut as her whole body tensed, but just before the moment of release Ban pulled away, leaving her dangling on the precipice. “No!” she gasped. “I was so close!”
“Tough,” the Kyyreni shot back. “I told you this would happen, slave. I'm going to tease you, bring you to the edge of orgasm over and over until our time in the room is up. Then you're going out to the lounge and we're going to sit and chat. You will not be putting your clothes back on until it's time to go home, and you will not be allowed to cum either. If I get bored, I might bring you back in for more edging, but you are going to stay pent up until midnight. Do you understand?”
“M-midnight?” she gasped. “But that's hours away! I can't-” her protest was halted by the sudden thrust of a finger back into her pussy. Ban curled his digits up to find her most sensitive spots, making her moan and squirm with ease. He studied her movements, adjusting pressure and speed of stimulation to coax her toward climax as quickly as possible, only to pull out again when release drew near.
As Kelsee moaned in frustration, Ban's paw came to rest upon her snout. Her own juices began to dribble over her nose and lips, which she lapped at without thinking. “A slave only cares about making her master happy, isn't that right?”
“Y-yes master,” she whimpered.
He paused, studying her features. “And a slave knows she should use her safeword if things get too intense, right?”
“Yes, Ban, I do,” she replied, judging the use of his name would further reassure him. Despite her protests and the burning need between her thighs, Kelsee realised she truly did want to impress him. She did want to be a good slave.
“Alright. Then let's see if you can do that. You have to tell me when to stop pleasuring you now. If you don't say anything, I'll keep going until you cum. But I don't want you to cum. Understand?”
“Yes master,” Kelsee said with a shudder.
Ban wasted no time in returning to her crotch. Dripping wet and maddeningly horny already, it took next to no stimulation to bring on that familiar urgency. Ban simply had to rub her front mound, fingers teasing over where a mammalian female's clitoris would be, and even that was enough. Kelsee bit her lip and moaned through the sensation as it built up inside, but as the much-wanted orgasm began to draw near her master's instructions sprang to mind. “S-stop!” she barked, and just in time Ban's paw withdrew. She had been so close that but a single touch more would have plunged her over the edge, and that desperation made her eyes water.
“That's my girl,” Ban growled in approval. “Don't worry, pet we've only got the room for another  forty minutes or so.”
The torture didn't last all forty minutes. Ban brought her to the edge of release twice more, but stopped when need and frustration made Kelsee sob. He released her restraints immediately, hurrying to her side to comfort the reptile and shushing her softly. “It's okay,” he whispered. “I'm sorry. I pushed you too hard.”
It took a few minutes for the Karrian to compose herself again, but the warmth of Ban's fur against her scale helped immensely. “Why don't we have another drink? Get dressed, or take care of yourself first if you need to.”
“No... I'm okay,” she said through shuddering breaths.
“Are you sure?”
Kelsee nodded. The girl looked up into Ban's concerned muzzle and added, “I want to keep going. But... I don't think I can take any more edging.”
“How do you feel about being taken out in public?” the question drew another nod. “I want to hear you say it, Kelsee.”
The Karrian began to blush as her worlds poured out in a flood of shameless honesty. “I want you to take me to the lounge. I want to be naked. I want you to make me tell everyone how desperate I am to cum.”
“Alright then. Let's go. Fetch the bags, slave.”

The rest of the evening was blissful torture. Ban took her into a room full of strangers and found a seat in the middle of the room. Before she could sit, however, Ban announced she'd need a towel to sit on, forcing her to stand alone in the room and wait. She knew there were plenty of eyes upon her, and guessed a few could even smell how desperate she was.
When Ban finally let her sit, it was on the floor. He'd found a nice Jalaxian couple to join them – a pair of black-furred feline females who seemed to know him from a previous visit. She assumed they had been briefed on her kink, as they made a point of asking for every little detail. One of the Jalaxians, dressed in a maid's outfit, decided to 'helpfully' comment on Kelsee's desperation. “Ma'am, don't we have a spare chastity belt?”
“Oh, we do!” the mistress agreed. “We could happily lend it to you, Ban. Nobody wants that naughty girl masturbating when your back is turned!” the comment made Kelsee whimper, which amused all three of them.
The teasing certainly wasn't over. Their little group drew in a few more people, and with a larger audience Ban clearly wanted to make more of a show for them. He made her Kelsee upon his lap, where he could continue to torment her. He'd randomly instruct her to open her legs and flash herself, revealing the shamefully large damp patch on the towel beneath her. The Jalaxian mistress took the chance to humiliate her own charge, making the two subs compare genitalia as though conducting an anatomy class. Other times he would absently finger her, his paw casually slipping between her thighs and giving a few teasing touches mid conversation, just enough to keep her painfully aware of how desperately she wanted release. In the end, Kelsee was bouncing on his lap with desperation. “Master, I really can't take any more!” she whined.
The pleading made Ban grin. He looked around the group and asked, “would anyone object if I fucked my slave right here?”
“By all means!” the Jalaxian mistress announced.
The words were heavenly to hear, but the sensation was even greater. Kelsee was steered into position and slowly lowered onto Ban's thick, throbbing cock. All it took was a single thrust. As soon as the knot touched her outer lips everything else in the world ceased to exist. There was only Ban's cock, and then the explosive climax. Her orgasm was so intense that it left her momentarily catatonic, unable to even breathe due to the force of the convulsions.
Ban opened his maw to ask if she was okay, but the sudden downward thrust of her hips cut off the question. Kelsee took the knot in and began to ride, rocking violently in the Kyyreni's lap to milk him for all she could. Even the male's own climax didn't slow her pursuit of pleasure; in fact, after all her torment, it felt good to see Ban suffer for once. She earned her second orgasm as his own climax finished, and savoured how his expression of happy relief shifted to an overstimulated grimace.
When Kelsee finally released the captive cock, Ban's member was rubbed raw. They were both sweating and spent, but grinning ear to ear like idiots. A polite spattering of applause greeted them, reminding Kelsee they were in public – a fact utterly lost during her desperate humping. “I... I think I should get dressed,” she announced sheepishly.
“No, you're going to get a shower with me. Then you can get dressed,” Ban corrected.
When they eventually stepped out into the cool night air, Kelsee felt a whole new woman. The past few hours had been the most intense of her life, and now she looked up into the brilliant, starlit sky and expected to float away into it. The stars had never shone so brightly in all her life.
A subtle click drew her attention back to Ban. He pulled his muzzle away from the gentle flame cupped in his paws and drew upon the cigarette before removing it from his maw and huffing a jagged stream of smoke from between his leaf-blade teeth. “It's a hell of a high, isn't it?”
“Wouldn't know, I never smoked.”
The Kyyreni laughed aloud at the comment. “I'm not talking about the tobacco! I mean what we did tonight. The look on your face when you finally got your release was amazing.”
“It felt amazing,” Kelsee agreed. “I want to do it all again.”
“Maybe in time. For now, I think you need to rest. Not wise to push yourself so hard too often.” He offered her his cigarette, and this time she accepted. She tried and failed to draw upon it, and watching her cough and splutter afterwards amused Ban greatly. “You'll get the hang of it, pet.”
“No thanks. You can keep this as your thing,” she answered, giving the contraband back.
“Fair enough. I want to meet up again. Tomorrow – well, today now. Not like this, for sex or anything. I want to grab a drink and talk, like normal people do.”
“Implying I'm not normal,” the Karrian girl said with a smirk.
“You're not, and that's a good thing. Who wants to be normal? Normal is boring. Different is unique, exciting... dangerous.” He flashed a predatory smile. “You like dangerous, don't you?”
The young woman couldn't suppress her childish giggle. “I do like your kind of dangerous.”
“Then let's meet. Six-thirty pee-em, at the coffee shop at the front of the shopping plaza. First person there buys the drinks. I take my coffee black and low-caff.”
“I'll remember,” Kelsee promised, and with another warm smile.

Their meeting place was easy to find. The plaza wasn't all that big, and while it had three entrances only one had an open-air coffee bar. Kelsee arrived ten minutes early, more than enough time to have the drinks waiting. Ban's was cold by the time he finally arrived, looking sheepish and haggard. “I am so very sorry!” he blurted out at seeing how unimpressed the Karrian looked. “I have had the worst morning of my life! But we don't need to go into that, right? Can we just pretend that I was here on time and that we've been having a wonderful conversation?”
“That depends. I would like to know why you were late,” Kelsee replied, taking a hard tone with the man she'd been infatuated with up until that point.”
Ban ran a paw through his mane, somehow making it look even scruffier. Kelsee realised he was still wearing the same shorts from yesterday. He kept looking at her then glancing away like a guilty child. “Okay. I guess if we're ever going to have any kind of relationship we need honesty, right? I took a risky job. An illegal job.”
Kelsee's eyes widened. “You're a smuggler, aren't you?”
Ban glanced around to make sure nobody else was listening. The place was largely empty. “Yes. I don't deal in anything dangerous, I want to make that clear. Most of what I move is completely legal in both directions, but I take on other cargo to pad the profits a little. The stuff I bring into Maribahl is contraband substances, like tobacco. Outbound it's all legal, completely legit, but it's sold outside of proper channels so we can avoid giving the regulators their cut. Guilds and governments in Kyyreni space take a massive chunk of any potential profit. If I could sell a cargo hold full of goods with no taxes and tithes at all, even if its something as bland as building-grade sand, we would make more on that haul than we do in a full year of legitimate operations.”
“But it can't be that bad, surely? If it is, how do any of you stay in business?”
“It is that bad, and we stay afloat because everyone does it. You have your cargo, and you have your personal effects. My crew's private property just happens to be two thousand pounds of Maribahl Dark Roast coffee beans, or three hundred bottles of wine. Personal belongings that tend to get 'stolen' a lot. Lucky for us, the locals will generously raise funds to compensate us for our lost goods, and round and round we go. If you're really ballsy you try and run the gauntlet with a full hold – buy it legit, flog the whole thing off books. Of course, the moment you get caught the shit will hit the fan and you likely lose everything, but run the gauntlet for long enough and you can retire in comfort, leaving the ship to the next poor bastard who wants to try his luck.”
“So your bad morning was almost getting caught?”
Ban nodded. “Yeah. But luckily we escaped with our hides. The crew got really spooked though, so we're going to play by the rules for a while. It'll hurt, and the coin purse will be light for a while, but we'll keep our ship and that means we'll have a chance to make it all back. My father always told me that you have to risk it all if you ever want to reach the top. He never did, but he got a lot higher than where he started.”
The conversation steered away from Ban's criminality to mundane talk about food, holos, sports and other interests. Ban's confident persona gradually reappeared, and he occasionally tried to tease out information on Kelsee's other sexual proclivities. They continued their date by shopping, with Ban insisting on treating her to an expensive necklace among other little treats. Kelsee began to wonder if he was trying to butter her up, a suspicion that was confirmed when he popped the question. “Kelsee, I want you to come with me when I ship out.”
“Are you kidding?”
“Not at all. I like being with you. I would normally never have opened up about what I do to anyone, especially not someone I only met last night. But you... Gods, I am madly obsessed with you! Last night, I got the impression you might have felt the same way, so like I said before you have to risk it all to win big. This is me risking it all. I want you to come with me, live on my ship for the next trip out and back. We're going to be playing by the book like I said, so you have nothing to worry about. It'll be three or four weeks at most before you're back on Maribahl. If nothing else, it'd be a vacation, a chance to see a whole new planet. Have you ever left Maribahl?”
“I've barely left this town,” she confessed. “Look, I do like you, but what you're asking is-”
“I get it,” he cut in. “It's a big jump, way outside your comfort zone. But so was everything we did last night. You discovered the most wonderful thing you've ever known by trusting in me. Trust me again, and I swear it will change your life forever.”
She wanted to doubt him, but the earnest look in his bright green eyes was almost hypnotic. He wasn't wrong about the Old Cellar either. “I'll think on it,” she said.
“Well don't think too long. I head out tomorrow morning.”
“What? That's- I would need to tell work and-”
“Forget your work. Just go home, pack a bag, and leave them hanging. Who cares if you piss off some two-bit manager? Stick with me and you'll live more in a year than he will his whole damn life! Guaranteed!”
Kelsee's green-scaled fingers stroked the new necklace around her neck. “What should I pack?”
“Only what you can't bear to leave behind. Clothes if you want them, but once you're aboard you can wear as little as you like,” he added with a playful wink. “Teminus Exit, oh-three-hundred sharp. Be there, please.”
She nodded in confirmation. “I will be, I promise.”
“Thank you,” Ban leaned in and kissed her softly on the snout. “You have no idea what wonders await you, Kelsee. I can't wait to show you the stars!”

Kelsee arrived at three am sharp. An hour later she was on a shuttle into orbit with Ban at her side, giddily explaining to her all the wonders he'd seen out there, describing the worlds his ship hauled to, and where he hoped to go in the future. He lamented being stuck in a rut, going back and forth between Maribahl and Taviksaad. “It was an easy route. But now you're here... well, if you stay, maybe that's the excuse I need to take us somewhere new? Maybe I'll go to see Urokon, the Kyyreni homeworld. Or maybe we'll go all the way to the other side of the galaxy and see your homeworld. Alqurai, right?”
“My homeworld is Maribahl,” Kelsee corrected. “But yeah, Karrians come from Alqurai. I guess I would like to see that planet one day.”
Ban's ship was not what Kelsee had expected. From the outside it resembled a fat, metallic fish, and inside it had a harshly industrial design; all grey metal and cramped spaces. The signage was all in Ruljic, testing her knowledge of Kyyreni language to its limits. The crew all gave her less than pleasant looks as she passed them. It began to feel like coming aboard was a terrible idea.
The anxiety grew even worse when Ban showed her to the cabin. It was tiny even for a single occupant. There was nothing but bare metal walls and dull grey sheets on the bed. “This is the guest cabin. It's all yours if you want it, but I'm hoping that you'd much rather bunk with me in mine. I can show you where it is if you like?”
Kelsee turned to face him, doubt and worry writ clear across her face. “I think I need to go home, Ban.”
“What?” the Kyyreni's face went from smug to startled in a heartbeat. “But we're about to leave orbit.”
“I know. I am really, really sorry! But I made a huge mistake coming aboard like this! I'll make it up to you when you next-” she never got to finish her apology. Ban shoved her hard, making her stumble and slam her back into the bed-frame. Lightning flared up her spine, but as she tried to rise a second Kyyreni shoved past Ban and into the tiny room. All Kelsee got was a glance of a dirty white jumpsuit and a hint of brown fur before a left hook smashed into her snout. Three more blows hammered her to the floor, leaving her dazed and bloody-nosed. “Get her stuff!” the attacker barked, the tone of voice a hint more feminine than Ban's. Kelsee numbly tried to rise, but pressure on her spine put paid to that idea. “You stay right there until we're done with you!”
A knife flashed into the corner of her eye, paralysing her with terror. “I'm going to cut your clothes off now,” the Kyyreni female growled. “You so much as squirm and I will start cutting meat as well. Piss yourself if you understand.”
Kelsee held her bladder, but the attacker started cutting regardless. The Karrian girl whimpered as first her shirt split open, then her pants. Each item was violently ripped from her and tossed out into the corridor, leaving her with just bare green scale against the cold metal of the ship. “Get up!” the female barked as she stepped out into the corridor.
Kelsee rose as commanded. The female was the same size as Ban, both in height and musculature. Aside from her brown fur, the only other obvious difference was the lack of a mane. “You belong to me now, Karrian. You will get food twice a day and this-” she paused to take a metal bucket from Ban and throw it at the prisoner “-gets emptied once a day. Both of these are privileges I will revoke the moment you say or do anything to piss me off. You will be in here for a few weeks, so think long and hard before you do anything stupid. Any questions?”
“W-why are you doing this?” she stammered, eyes fixed on Ban as she asked the terrified question. He didn't meet her gaze.
The only reply came from the female. “You aren't getting fed today!” she snarled as the door slammed shut. Seconds later she heard the locks engage, and soon after the internal light blinked out, trapping her in total darkness.